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This heritage issue is fraught with problems. The grain
companies are wary of future potential commercial use of discarded
elevators. They are not keen on dealing with preservation issues
that drag on for extended periods of time. Once an elevator has been
closed, the bottom line is their main concern. As long as the
elevator remains standing, the grain companies argue, they are
forced to pay taxes to the town, village or municipality, as well as
lease payments to the railway companies. The grain companies point
to insurance costs and concerns, as well as the issue of public
liability, in explaining their reluctance to involve themselves with
preservation interests. For the most part, the grain companies do
not even encourage salvage operations, citing unfulfilled contracts
to dismantle and injury and accident as major deterrents.
On the other hand, the Grain Academy in Calgary,
the only museum in Alberta dedicated to the story of the grain
elevator, is sponsored by the Alberta Wheat Pool. The four major
grain companies in Alberta-1-all facilitated the
documentation, research and artifact salvage undertaken for the PMA.
Co-operation between the heritage/museum community and the grain
companies must be carefully cultivated.
There is still plenty of opportunity for museums to collect
artifacts, undertake oral histories, and garner local information.
There are numbers of privately owned elevators on farm sites which
could not be tackled as part of the 1997 inventory and which should
be documented. Interested parties who may know some of these can
contact Dorothy Field, Historic Sites Service, at 780.421.2339, for
the appropriate forms and information. Other documentation such as
the recording of the position of even recently demolished elevators
on the sidings in their communities, could be profitably undertaken.
Several museums other than the PMA, the Breton & District Museum
and the Bonnyville & District Museum for example, have already
begun gathering artifacts pertaining to elevators. The overall
picture, however, given the significance of the grain industry in
Alberta, leaves much to be desired.
Judy Larmour is a historical researcher and museum consultant who
lives on a grain farm near Rimbey. Her latest project is
co-authoring a book of interesting driving routes or "auto
adventures" in search of history and nature and other
"neat stuff" in central Alberta.
Several elevators built by the Alberta Pacific Elevator Co. are
among the earliest remaining in Alberta, with an excellent example
built in High River in 1906, and now owned by Parrish and Heimbecker
Ltd. Important examples of elevators built by co-operatives in
opposition to the line companies were also found at several points.
The Champion Farmers Grain and Supply Co.'s elevator built in
1912, characterized by white metal siding and its pyramidal roof
with roofed cupola, still serves as a twin to the 1952 United Grain
Growers elevator. At Foremost a pyramidal roofed elevator
constructed in 1913 by the newly founded Alberta Co-operative
Elevator Co. was recorded.
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